Pakistan’s biggest problem:Illiteracy

Pakistan became a free country in August 1947.Ever since we’ve faced alot of problems. Initially we didn’t get our share of money and weapons from the British. Alot of countries refused to recognize
Pakistan as an independent state. Not to forget India, occupied some states which were meant to be a part of
Pakistan. Then there were refugees coming in who had to be given food ,clothing, shelter etc. A year later Quaid-e-Azam died and we needed a leader who could handle the delicate situation boldly. A few years later we needed a constitution. And the list goes on.
Pakistan’s problems have never ended. Successive governments paid attention to different things like economy ,constitution, law and order, foreign policy etc .But none looked at illiteracy as a problem. Governments thought that all we need to do is align ourselves with the Americans, buy weapons for armed forces, take blessings from the GHQ etc but none thought of making
Pakistan an educated country. Everybody chose to ignore the fact that
Pakistan can never prosper if the masses aren’t educated. The fact is that they thought that educated masses would never let them carry out their personal agendas.Various scholars, politicians, analysts have identified a number of problems. Each claiming that this is the root cause for all the problems in our country. Some claim it is dictatorship, mismanagement of economy, wastage of funds, wrong foreign policies, lack of genuine leadership etc. But I don’t remember hearing anybody say its illiteracy. I believe illiteracy and our current education system are the root cause of all our problems.It is a miracle that despite such a pathetic state of affairs
Pakistan has produced scientists like Dr.Abdus Salam, Dr. A Q Khan etc. But the sad thing is nobody recognized their talent over here. When they went abroad and started excelling in their fields they started gaining prominence. But their own country had nothing for them.Until the 1990’s we did not have a lot of universities which were producing world class MBA’s, engineers, IT professionals etc. Most of the universities then offered programs from Bachelors to Doctorate in physics, chemistry, mathematics etc. A person having a Masters degree in some subject was considered very educated. Those who could afford went to
USA, Europe etc for higher studies. This started the brain drain in our country. Now most of them are well known or settled in their respective fields. Some want to come back and help
Pakistan but know that it wont be easy at all. The primary reason being lack of opportunities in various fields of science and technology.The military government appointed a prominent chemist Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman as minister of science and technology in early 2000. Currently he is the chairman of HEC(Higher Education Commission). He introduced some good reforms in higher education. A number of universities have been given charter and the students have been given alot of incentives to do research in various fields of science and technology. Now we have 4-5 universities in almost every city which are offering degree programs in various fields of management, information technology, engineering etc. But the question is how many are producing MBA’s who are employed by top multinational companies? How many IT professionals are we producing who are needed in silicon valley? I’m afraid the answer is very few. Most of the universities are producing degree holders and not competent professionals. Very few universities are offering world class degree programs. In this regard HEC has introduced ranking system for all the universities. Universities have been rated for their laboratories, libraries, student facilities, teacher to students ratio etc. But so far the ranking system has not helped. HEC should help universities in introducing better curriculum, give modern equipment to laboratories etc. Universities should be penalized for not improving their rankings. And HEC should work with them accordingly. In rural areas the situation is pathetic. Alot of schools don’t have proper class rooms, furniture, buildings etc. Children have to walk hundreds of kilometers to go to school. The result being children don’t get any benefit from going to school. It is more of a burden. Government of
Punjab has launched “Parha Likha Punjab” program but what has it done to appoint more qualified teachers, improve learning conditions for children? I guess nothing. Such programs are just a waste of time and resources. Waiving of fee, providing stipends, giving free books aren’t enough. It is better not to do anything like that unless there’s a proper vision, plan.In
Pakistan there are three different education systems running in parallel. One is the British Cambridge System, second is our own Matriculation System and third is our Madressa System. People who belong to the affluent class send their children to schools which offer the British system. People from middle class send their children to schools which follow our system. The poor and down trodden who can barely make both ends meet send their children to madrassas. The result we are producing a confused generation who look down towards people who come from different systems. We have to streamline our education system. There can be only one system which has the good features of all the three systems mentioned above.

The government needs to take concrete steps for promoting education in our country. The ministers of education, science and technology need to be competent professionals of their fields. A retired general cannot do anything about it. They need to produce world class brains that can help
Pakistan in achieving Quaid’s dreams. The current brain drain has to end. Bringing in foreign investment in industries is useless if you have illiterate masses. If you talk about best investment climate, also talk about the best available research facilities in various fields of science and technology. We need to do something about education fast, before its too late.